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Archive for September 6th, 2010
US company plans to ship fresh water from Alaska to India
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2010
Guardian: Imagine an oil tanker plowing through the ocean, hauling valuable cargo from resource-rich nations of the world to the countries that need it: but instead of oil, the tanker holds millions of gallons of fresh water. It's not a vision from some futuristic film or doomsday novel, but the present-day intention of companies trying to launch the bulk water export business. The idea has been around since the 1990's, yet no one has succeeded in making it a practical reality. But last ...
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Poor Thirst as Nile Taps Run Dry
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The midday sun punishes a group of veiled women as they wait in line to fill their buckets and jerrycans. They have travelled on foot to a rusty tap on the outskirts of Cairo that gushes irrigation water never intended for human consumption. "We'll boil it when we get home," says one woman, positioning a blue jerrycan on her head. Water shortages, aggravated by intense summer heat and recurring power outages, have forced millions of Egyptians to scavenge for water in recent ...
Guatemala mudslide death toll rises
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2010
AP: Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala – some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud. In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers suspended the search for bodies Sunday afternoon after heavy rain fell in the area, Civil Protection spokesman David de Leon said. Two slides in the same spot killed at least 20 along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. ...
Global warming to boost economic power of cities in the ‘New North’ which can unlock natural resources
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2010
Mail Online: Global warming will make cities in northern countries like Canada and Scandinavia the next big global economic powers, a senior academic has predicted. Rising temperatures will mean that previously frozen natural resources like gas, oil and water will be unlocked just as the rest of the world is facing dramatic shortages. Professor Laurence Smith, a UCLA professor of geography and of earth and space sciences, claims that sparsely populated parts of world like the northern US, ...
Fast growing salmon cleared as fit for human consumption in US
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2010
Independent: A genetically modified salmon which grows twice as fast as normal is completely safe for human consumption and poses little risk to the environment according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The regulatory body's verdict paves the way for GM animals to be produced commercially for food for the first time. The creature, dubbed "Frankenfish" by critics, looks likely to be approved for human consumption later this month. Its developers, a Boston-based company called ...
China aims to increase hydropower 50 per cent by 2015
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 6th, 2010
Business Green: The Chinese government has reportedly pledged to increase its hydroelectric power capacity 50 per cent by 2015 as it continues to accelerate efforts to boost its low-carbon energy supplies. According to local reports, officials said they were aiming to increase hydropower capacity from 200 million kilowatts currently to 300 million kW by 2015. The announcement came as China's largest hydropower station, the Xiaowan dam in Yunnan province, came online. State-backed news ...